Middle-aged Arab users spend at least 3.5 hours daily on social media: Survey

Middle-aged Arab users devoted at least 3.5 hours a day on social media platforms, according to the 'How the Middle East Used Social Media in 2020' report published by the New Media Academy.

Users in the UAE have more than ten social media accounts making it the country with the highest number of social media users regionally. Meanwhile, 79 per cent of Arab youth first rely on social media for information, which is 25 per cent higher than in 2015.

The New Media Academy CEO, Rashid Al-Awadhi stated that there has been a huge increase in quality, diversity and the number of digital contents on social media across the Middle East and the world. The increase was mainly due to the widespread shift of institutions and individuals to the digital platform because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He added that he hoped that the Social Media Report 2020 would benefit both influencers and content creators.

The report was based on information from over 200 sources on the use of social media in the region. Statistics showed that the fan base for social media influencers on TikTok increased by 65 per cent during the months of January-August last year.

Egypt ranked ninth in the world in Facebook users and first in the region with more than 44 million social media accounts last October. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt have the most number of Snapchat users in the Middle East.